Have Your Technology Be Well Cared For (Just Like Your Home)
I’ve spoken before about Mr. IT Fix It. Mr. IT Fix It is an outsourced technology consultant who gets paid for fixing your technology when it breaks.
Hiring a Mr. IT Fix It appears to be a good way to keep costs down as you only pay when you need his assistance. But this relationship can actually end up increasing your technology costs because no one is tending to the regular maintenance of your technology to prevent problems and reduce costs.
Which is cheaper: installing a new battery in a smoke detector or dealing with a house fire?
I know, an extreme example, but it illustrates the point.
Mr. IT Fix It makes almost nothing for installing a battery but can make a lot for putting out a fire. In contrast, a Managed IT team–paid a flat monthly fee–will gladly spend a lot less time and energy performing this kind of necessary, low-profile work because it means they (like you) won’t have to deal with a time-consuming crisis (during which, like you, they will not make any money).
In short, you want your outsourced IT to care for your technology as if they own it.
The key question: is your relationship (and compensation structure) with your outsourced IT treating them like Mr. IT Fix It or like Managed IT?
Here are five lessons learned from homeowners about how business leaders want their outsourced IT to behave.
Security
Homeowners want locks to lock, screens and windows to stay intact, and seals to stay sealed, keeping out uninvited people, animals and insects. The Orkin man likes it when seals don’t work, and Mr. IT Fix It likes it when networks get infected. More problems equal more money.
Managed IT helps keep your virtual doors locked, windows closed and seals sealed. If the pests do get in, we clean up the mess.
Efficiency
Homeowners work to keep monthly costs down by being as efficient as possible. They improve insulation and windows, purchase energy efficient light bulbs and appliances, and even clean the refrigerator coils every now and then. The heating and cooling repairman looks forward to a breakdown, and Mr. IT Fix It welcomes bad processes that lead to more troubleshooting and support.
Managed IT strategizes better processes to help your systems and staff work as efficiently as possible. Inefficiency means time lost from more important things for everyone involved.
Visibility
Homeowners check the back corners of their place for the dirty secrets no one usually notices: mold growth, leaking water, insects burrowing in. They want full visibility into any developing problems, so they can address them before they blossom into a crisis. Home repairmen don’t mind coming to fix a fully formed crisis in your home, and Mr. IT Fix It enjoys rushing in for major repairs when your business technology grinds to a halt. When you’re under pressure in the middle of a crisis, you’re more willing to spend whatever it takes to get things fixed.
Managed IT sets up remote monitoring throughout your network: firewalls, routers, servers and individual PCs. 24/7 monitoring and automated alerts at the first sign of trouble bring visibility to what’s happening to your technology, helping you nip potential problems in the bud.
Prevention
Homeowners perform preventative maintenance on their homes. Roofs get patched before they start leaking or falling off. Gutters get cleaned out before water starts running down into the foundation. Smoke detectors get new batteries every year before they fail during a fire. These simple and cheap preventative activities keep homes healthy and avoid catastrophe. Just like home repairmen make more money by fixing your home than swapping out a battery, Mr. IT Fix It has no incentive to perform preventative tasks on your business technology.
Managed IT functions like your technology homeowner by performing regular, routine maintenance to keep technology healthy and functioning.
Failsafes
Homeowners build redundancy into the emergency systems in their home. They don’t install a single smoke detector but several. If one fails, the home will still be safe. A single sump-pump in a high rain region can put a basement at risk, so a backup sump-pump is often installed as well. Like a home repairman, Mr. IT Fix It has little reason to tend to installing and maintaining redundancy in your systems.
Managed IT is committed, like you are, to no surprises or downtime and thus works to protect your data and build redundancy into systems to ensure your business can handle whatever may come.
What do you think? Have you had good or bad experiences with a Mr. IT Fix It or a Managed IT team? Add your comment below.
